Stereotypes In Claude Steele's Article 'Bad Boys'

Helen Hill
Sociology 11:00am Class

The article “Bad Boys” explains the stereotypes and generalizations placed upon young boys based on the way they dress. It emphasizes on the significance on racial socialization because it sets young African American boys apart from other children. At a young age they do not realize the significance and impact that these stereotypes placed upon them will make. This stereotype threat, a term coined by Claude Steele, explains the situation in which there are imposed roles placed upon these children based on not only their race but also their clothing. These children have big dreams regardless of these stereotypes that people place on them but they tend to not achieve them because of the position they are in or because they try too hard to disprove these stereotypes that they are doomed with
This article can be seen from a symbolic interactionist theoretical perspective. This is a micro level theory but it explains that interactions and the meaning of situations have a great impact on the individual. For example. in the article 10 year old boys who have baggy clothes are told that because of that, they are destined to be convicts in the future. These boys, although they do not take it seriously at a young age, internalize these comments and it shapes who they become in the future as they grow and start to figure out who they wish to be in life. The young boys who achieve the stereotypes placed upon them did not inherit these stereotypes from birth, rather it was made-up and forced upon them as an individual. This inequality at a young age sets up society because it causes this young individual to also place these inequalities on their own race as well as the other races who are placing these inequalities on them causing a cycle of race prejudice